


Smoke and Stained Glass

by Absolutefandomtrash



Series: My Hattercrow Trash Brain Came Up With These [2]
Category: Gotham (TV)
Genre: Hatter's POV, Jim Gordon is just Done, M/M, and kissing, namely between two guys, rip poor souls who get killed, there's violence and lots of blood in this my friends
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-15
Updated: 2018-07-15
Packaged: 2019-06-10 16:42:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,224
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15295737
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Absolutefandomtrash/pseuds/Absolutefandomtrash
Summary: Jervis Tetch's fragile grip on reality either loosens or strengthens, but never really disappears. Most people don't realize that, since he's been better at being who people want to see and not who he is. Jonathan Crane, however, sees right through the cracks in his mind and egos unlocks what Jervis swore he had hidden safely away: his heart.





	Smoke and Stained Glass

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry the summary's so crappy! I just wanted to not pretty much write the entire work and made the summary less-than-great quality. Hope you enjoy this, though!
> 
> I haven't seen Gotham but I've watched like 500,000 clips and read stuff on this ship. Just so you know how much I don't care about anything being OOC

He knows this state of mind is neither normal nor healthy; trouble is, he's too sick to try fixing what's long been broken. Something went wrong years ago. He can't remember when, but it had something to do with the poison in his sister's blood. Was it exposure? Was it learning of its effects? Did seeing her first learn about having it push something already there to the breaking point? He can't remember. All he knows is that he wasn't always like this, but he wouldn't go back to it ever again.

To most people he's a lost cause. Oh, that hypnotist who lost his mind after killing his sister. Oh, the man with no sense of reality whatsoever. Oh, that crazy who speaks in ridiculous rhymes and never answers anything directly. They turn their heads and avoid listening and feel better about themselves. Jim Gordon once had hope for him, but then the detective lost it after he oh-so-sweetly kept it long past anyone else did. 

There's no one now, no one to see that he doesn't exist, not really. He acts the way everyone expects him down to the blank eyes and the desperate, wild laughter ringing through their minds when they can't sleep. It's an act. It's all an act: every interaction is playing pretend and no one knows they are playing. When he entrances the bystanders and plays with their minds and their lives is when he is dropping the act, but just a little more; he allows himself to be the immaterial puppeteer of the looking glasses he creates. They reflect whatever he tells them to, much like he reflects the images projected onto him from any conscious being. Controlling and sadistic with his victims, who do project onto him in their own way. Cold and aloof with the detectives who assume that they can subdue him with their threats and questions. Reluctant obedience to the King of Hearts as he spits out wild demands and egotistical visions for Gotham truly being a madhouse.

He was gentle, once. He was careful in his words and actions before his beautiful sister was taken away from him. Then he shut himself off from everything and locked up his fragile heart of stained glass inside a cage of a looking-glass; no one sees past the reflection and no one can attempt to touch him.

Smoke penetrates through any crack it can. It is created with a need to fill everywhere it can and the ability to shape and twist itself into whatever it needs to be in order to satisfy that need. Many people find ways to contain that smoke and keep it in one area, but its stench never quite disappears. Anyone who is wise will cover it with perfumes and seals so no one else can smell or see what they contain.

Jonathan Crane is full of smoke. He says that his father put it there to see its effects, to conquer the smoke with fire. All he did was burn through his son until all that was left was a hollow body filled to the brim with the stuff. Every word Jonathan speaks billows out on small clouds that Jervis can almost see, and the Hatter most definitely sees. Jonathan was not wise and didn't cover or perfume his smoke; he instead broke down more things and added wood to suffocate anyone who would breathe the same air. 

Scarecrow is the role he plays, but differently. Jervis plays the Hatter as an outfit that one puts on daily. There are nuances and different colors, but ultimately the Hatter has the same use. Jonathan plays the Scarecrow as a new container to fill. He expands inside his costume and occupies the new space, new character. How foreign to someone whose outfits throw him in and out and around his own little Wonderland like the tides! How enviable to someone who must stay in place like after glass has cooled and molded into its shape, only to become a new one when cracks form!

Jonathan's smoke makes its way through the outfit. His eyes that reveal the smoke inside bore through the eyes that expand and ensnare to see the looking-glass. He never mentions it but Jervis knows. Jervis knows that his defense has been seen and attempts to retreat and hide away. The smoke already inside of him starts to expand even in his retreat, until the Hatter once again chooses to bring someone else to Wonderland.

The scarlet pools forming around three chairs are the right shade to paint roses. But not even the Red King would demand such a thing, since he burns every Rose and paints the ashes in his expanding kingdom. Only the Hatter is slitting throats and spilling paint to his heart's content. Only the Hatter is working to color the white purity of Gotham into a ruby mass of chaos.

Scarecrow observes from his expanded container. He never speaks while the Hatter works, only watches. Sometimes he shares his smoke to leave people choking on their own perfume and forgetting that the Hatter is much more of a threat to their minds. This time is different. This time he helps the Hatter to execute the three, much to gleeful shouts of "Off with their heads!" He never reacts to the words of the Hatter. He stays in his container and speaks in his own way unless Jonathan allows him to move. By the time Jervis returns, he realizes that his guard was let down for too long and his glass heart had been consumed.

He hides the best he can, playing his role with perfection and fooling everyone around him. Except for Jonathan. Jonathan exhales smoke and screams out the curses his inner demons hid in the fires whenever he sleeps and Jervis can't help but want to put out the fire that cursed a child to become a menace. Much like when his Alice would scream when her poisonous blood would boil under her skin and couldn't help but let her poisonous perfume surround his heart and comfort her. But Alice is dead and Jonathan hasn't been a child in a long time and Jervis feels the tides pushing him towards smoke instead of perfume. For once he doesn't fight it and let's himself be submerged.

The Hatter is the one to remove the lid off of the Scarecrow and inhale. He allows his fragmented heart to be touched by the smoke that is Scarecrow, that is Jonathan. He breathes in as much as he can and when Jonathan finally starts to kiss back he feels that both the rhyming hypnotist and the wandering Hatter are the subject. The water becomes less oppressive, and the smoke doesn't suffocate him at all. They allow each other's bloody hands to caress their faces and exchange smoke fore water and water for smoke until Jervis and Hatter are swimming together long enough to whisper, "Thank you."

The smoke pooling out of both their mouths replies with a quiet, "For what?"

"Seeing through the looking glass."

Jonathan smiles and puts his mask back on, not quite becoming Scarecrow and not quite saying, "You're welcome." But his demons have been soothed by Jervis' water, and that's enough to have his fragile stained-glass heart to be caressed by smoke.


End file.
